Chapter 2645: Chapter 866: Honesty Is the Best Choice
The projection could have vanished without a sound.
Like a bubble.
But Old Yao chose a high-profile, loud way to end it, like the crack of a whip; and in a very strange way, Zheng Qing could actually hear a hint of teasing in that crisp sound.
He rarely showed a trace of awkwardness and snuck a glance at the witch.
After the Professor’s projection disappeared, Jiang Yu quickly cleared the books off the desk, then took out one delicate little plate after another from her small bag and arranged them neatly on the desk they shared.
"This is..."
The warlock, who was gripping a piece of black jade stone and trying hard to make it change shape, noticed this scene while sneaking a look and froze a little. In just the blink of an eye, their two large desks were already packed to the brim. The White Jade kitten lifted its tail high and nimbly threaded its way between the plates, sniffing left and right with a thoroughly satisfied expression.
"Oh, just a bit of simple afternoon tea."
Hands folded, the witch answered cheerfully, "Studying is too exhausting, it’s easy to get low blood sugar. And since the Professor isn’t here, it’s just the two of us... we can be a little freer, no need to be so stiff... want some?"
Zheng Qing had been through high-intensity training at Greenhill Mansion.
Although he couldn’t immediately recognize many of the "tea snacks" the witch brought out, just the few he did recognize—like the Italian antipasto bruschette; the thin slices of meat that looked like Carpaccio or sashimi, which Zheng Qing had reason to suspect was dragon meat; and the melon wrapped in thin slices of ham, and so on—just judging from the refinement of these dishes, they had nothing to do with the word "simple," leaving him genuinely amazed.
So this is what a rich family’s afternoon tea looks like?
"...What would you like?" The witch glanced at him again.
Zheng Qing hesitated for a few seconds. His raised hand passed over the bruschette piled with tomatoes, cheese, and black caviar, and pointed at the plainest plate of bread in the corner—
"That one."
He nervously glanced out of the classroom. Good, no one was there.
Jiang Yu moved the white porcelain plate from the corner to set it in front of the boy.
"What’s this? Sandwiches?"
Zheng Qing picked up a piece of pastry from the plate and popped it into his mouth. The sweet-and-sour sauce made his eyes light up at once, as if he were tasting sunlight that had been brewed and bottled. "What jam is this?"
He couldn’t wait to ask.
The witch’s brows and eyes curved.
"Orange-strawberry jam." She carefully turned the plate a bit, pushing the other piece of pastry on it toward the warlock’s hand. "It does taste pretty good. I heard warlocks all really like it."
Zheng Qing turned his head aside and started coughing violently, desperately hoping this was some kind of April Fool’s joke—on Tuesday, when he went to see Su Shijun, he had "shared senses" with this very jam once in her office.
The problem was, at the time he had only been looking at the sunlight, cheeks, and lips, with just the faintest flicker of a thought in his heart. There was no reason for someone to have been peeping at his mind right then.
But if it was a coincidence, it was far too exquisite a coincidence—exquisite like something someone had slowly carved out with a tiny engraving knife.
"How did you... This jam is pretty rare, you know." He chose his words carefully, watching the witch’s expression from the corner of his eye, unable to shake the feeling that someone had seen straight through his thoughts.
"A family elder mailed it to me."
Jiang Yu’s tone was light and breezy; she didn’t notice at all how nervous the boy looked. "The same elder who was chatting with me about Sister Korma’s recent situation... So? Tastes good, right?"
"It is. Very, very astonishing." Zheng Qing commented sincerely.
They ate a few pastries.
Brewed two cups of tea.
The witch held a small, exquisite teacup, blowing gently on it, eyes lowered as she watched the rippling reflections in the cup. Very naturally, she steered the topic back to that "little question" from before class: "...I see you’re wearing a new strand of Haha Beads. Where did you buy it? Looks pretty nice."
Zheng Qing, who had just stuffed a pecan into his mouth, froze with his hand halfway up.
First he glanced at his own wrist—completely bare, not a single ornament. Before class, just to be safe, he’d already taken off that new strand of beads. Then he carefully sneaked a look at the girl still sipping with her eyes lowered, and his brain started spinning madly.
Without a doubt, the fact that she was asking this meant Jiang Yu had definitely seen the strand of beads he’d worn earlier; she might even have had the chance to examine it closely when he wasn’t paying attention.
As for whether she’d first seen it in the Magic Script class on Tuesday afternoon, or only noticed it in the Magic Potion class on Thursday morning, or whether Li Meng’s little tongue had been wagging—none of that made any difference to Zheng Qing.
Because both of Zheng Qing’s hands were currently in plain view, so even if he wanted to do a quick divination he couldn’t find the chance.
The only truly reliable choice was still "honesty."
"I didn’t buy it."
The young teaching assistant dutifully fished the new strand of beads out from the depths of the Grey Cloth Bag, cupped it in both hands, and passed it to the witch, giving a brief explanation: "After the incident on Anti-Magic Day, the Two-dimensional Evolution Laboratory called me in to get an account of what happened. When they learned my old Haha Beads were destroyed, they gave me a new strand for the time being, for self-defense..."
Even when you tell the truth, you still have to mind how you tell it.
The witch neither confirmed nor denied, set down her teacup, and took the strand of beads from Zheng Qing. She looked at the translucent jade beads one by one and gave the slightest nod. "No wonder it looks so familiar... I’ve seen Sister Su wear one before."
Zheng Qing felt a layer of cold, soft "white fur" sweat break out across his back.
"...It’s better than the one I gave you." She rubbed one of the jade beads between her fingers and offered a very objective assessment. "I’ve only held it in my hand for a short while, and I can already feel that besides calming the mind, it’s helping to comb through my Magic Power... Have you tested its combat capabilities? It should be impressive, right?"
"I did a simple test. Each bead’s about equivalent to a Registered wizard–level monster." Zheng Qing somewhat awkwardly picked up a pine nut, cracked open the shell, wiped off the thin oily skin on the kernel, then added, "Mm... This strand is different from yours. It doesn’t produce Alchemy Puppets—it turns into one Alchemy Fox after another."
"One, two, three..."
Jiang Yu rolled each bead between her fingers in turn, then finally exclaimed, "Nine beads in total, so that’s nine helpers at Registered wizard level. As expected of the eldest young lady of the Qingqiu Family."
This was something Zheng Qing had to pretend he’d never heard.
Only, sometimes you can pretend not to hear, but you can’t pretend not to see.
When Jiang Yu handed the strand of beads back, something else dropped into Zheng Qing’s palm along with it: a fluffy, knotted cord-like thing that wriggled in his hand, vivid and lively, like a tiny dragon.
"This is..." He stared at the witch in astonishment.
"A little trinket woven from the underjaw fluff of Damao," Jiang Yu said, not giving Zheng Qing any chance to refuse. "Once you pour Magic Power into it, it can transform into a small Zhongshan Hairy Dragon—counts as a pretty decent means of transportation... I’ve got one too."
She raised her other wrist to show him a braided knot almost identical to Zheng Qing’s, the only difference being that one had horns and the other did not.
